Download the one-page leaflet here.
WHY
LOVE AND VISIT THE POOR?
• Each
person has an infinite dignity. This teaching of the
Popes is based on each one having the image and likeness of God, and the fact
that Jesus has united himself with each one, especially the neediest: “as you
did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me,” said Jesus.
(Mt. 25:40)
• Loving
the poor heals our pettiness, selfishness and materialism.
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo said: ‘It makes us see that often we are concerned
about foolish things that are simply the result of our own selfishness and
pettiness.” The Catechism states that “Love for the poor is incompatible with
immoderate love of riches or their selfish use.”
• The
poor give us great wisdom. Pope Francis told us of the wise
lessons we can learn from them: dignity is not based on possessions; humility;
trust in God; generosity; spirit of detachment. St. Josemaria wrote that “The
poor are my best spiritual book”. (Furrow 827)
• Being
with the poor is a soul-enriching encounter with Jesus Christ.
St. Josemaria explained that the goal of visiting the poor is “to see Jesus in
the poor, the sick, the helpless, the lonely, the suffering, in the child. So
[young people] will learn to wage a great battle against misery, against
ignorance, against disease, against suffering.” He said that “contact with
poverty is an occasion that the Lord usually uses, to enkindle in souls desires
of generosity and divine adventures. At the same time, it makes young people
aware of always having a heart for justice and love.”
• Through
almsgiving, we practice the virtues of charity, mercy and justice. The Catechism calls almsgiving “one of the
chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to
God.” Because God created all the goods of the world for everyone, the
Catechism explains through the words of two great saints: "Not to enable
the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life.
The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." (St. John Chrysostom)
“More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice..” (St.
Gregory the Great)
• God
hears their cry and asks us “to give them something to eat.”(Mk 6:27) “The
wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry
out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of
hosts” (Jas 5:4)
• We
follow the lead of Jesus and his Vicars, the Popes who want a Church of the
poor for the poor. “Our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always
close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral
development of of society’s most neglected members.” (Pope Francis) The option
for the poor “is implicit in our Christian faith in a God who became poor for
us, so as to enrich us with his poverty”. (Benedict XVI) Pope Francis taught
that Matthew Chapter 25 which speaks of love for the least and of using our
talents is “the standard by which we will be judged” at the end of our life.
HOW DO WE LOVE THE POOR?
• Show
great respect, love and caring for the poor, especially those closest to you.
Pope Francis taught: “what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism,
but above all an attentiveness which considers the other ‘in a certain sense as
one with ourselves.’ This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true
concern for their person.” Start with
just pay and extra caring for your household help.
• Work
so as to "be able to give to those in need." (Eph 4:28) Pope
Francis taught that the economy’s key concern is the dignity of each person and
that business is a “noble vocation to serve the common good by striving to
increase the goods of this world and to make them more accessible to all.”
• Be
involved in efforts to alleviate the problems of the poor and solve poverty.
Take part in and donate to educational endeavors. Work “to eliminate the
structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the
poor” and reject “all forms of injustice and corruption which, by stealing from
the poor, poison the very roots of society.” (Pope Francis)
• Pray
for the poor and for good government. Pray for the poor people that you see
in the streets, the slums, on TV and in the web. When you pray “Give us this
day our daily bread”, think of replenishing the needs of all the poor people.
Pope Francis taught us to ask God for politicians who will fulfill their lofty
vocation in politics, solving the roots of the world’s evils and practising
charity at the macro level.
• Give
spiritual help. Pope Francis emphasized that “Our preferential option for
the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious
care.” Help in teaching catechism to the poor.
• Make
visits to the poor. (1) Identify the poorest people in the
area or the most needful among the sick in the public hospital. Visit those who are most in need of
consolation. (2) Bring gifts. Children can contribute to the gifts from their
allowance to help them live the spirit of poverty and generosity. St. Josemaria
recommended gifts that the poor do not usually receive. Give them spiritual
items too, which can help them pray, e.g. prayer cards, rosaries. It will
console them greatly, if we promise to pray for them and their needs. (3) Interact and converse with each person
with warmth and affection. This is the most important element of the visit.
“The greatest gift we can give to them is our friendship, our concern, our
tenderness, our love for Jesus. To receive Jesus is to have everything; to give
him is to give the greatest gift of all.” (Pope Francis’ undelivered speech for
his Encounter with the Youth in the Philippines)
Download the one-page leaflet here.
